In the current machines, both in the machines working by torsion and in the multi-lane machines with knives, a cutting operation, that is the division in two halves of the fruits, and a pitting operation are performed in the same time for each fruit and with the same tool.
Nevertheless, it can happen, especially for the peaches, that the pit of the fruit is not intact, and is split in two halves when the fruit is cut.
In the current methods and machines, when a pitting operation starts, the fruit is already divided in two halves and, if the pit happens to be broken, the pitting operation is not performed around a defined geometric shape, but around a piece that splits up. In this case, the rotation of the knife crosses the pit or does not enclose it completely, being the pit already separated while being cut.
The consequence of this drawback is the presence of pit fragments, that are difficult both to locate and remove in the following operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,765 A in the name of G. Tomelleri had tried to remedy this drawback. This patent describes an apparatus for pitting and cutting fruits neatly oriented along one line with their axis in a vertical position and their stalk facing upward. In this apparatus a pitting section for separating the pit from the fruit flesh, the pit remaining inside the fruit, precedes a cutting section in which a vertical cut is made in side parts of each fruit in order to divide it in two halves. Tomelleri does not provide a pre-cutting section in which a pre-cutting blade incises superiorly the fruit in order to facilitate the insertion of crescent-shaped pitting blades.
Tomelleri uses vertical retaining blades that flank the pitting blades in order to hold steady the fruit being enclosed between a cup element for supporting the fruit and a fruit pressing cap that presses the fruit from above. In the pitting section, the vertical blades do not plunge into the fruit flesh for all its height, but help the fruit resist the torsion provoked by the pitting blades. In fact, the fruit pressing cap is not able to hold the fruit steady. Nevertheless, the fruit retaining vertical blades cut the fruit flesh so that fibers of the fruit have no more a containing and cooperating function that prevents the splitting of the pit in a vertical direction, when the pit is fractured.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,309 A in the name of G. R. Anderson describes a multi-lane machine for pitting fruits to which the teachings of Tomelleri could be applied in order to obtain a method and a multi-lane machine for pitting and then cutting fruits.